Ornamental work and process of making same



(Specimens.)

E.' CRISPIN. n ORNAMBNTAL WORK AND PROCESS 0F MAKING SAME.

Patented Nov. 27, 1894.

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i' STATES PATENT -rrion.

EDWARD CRISPIN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

ORNAMENTAL WORK AND PROCESS OF MAKING SAME.

SPECIFICATIONforming part of Letters Patent No. 529,782,dated November 27, 1894. Appncanon nea January 16,1893. seri-.i1 No. 458,603. (No moda.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EDWARD ORISPIN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and usefulIm- Vprovement in Ornamental Work landProcesses of Making Same,;of which the following isa specification. l

My invention relates to the preparation of ornamental work for the walls and eeilin gs of Y rooms, cars, and other like uses.

A prominent object of my invention is to provide such ornamental work with a backing consisting of an exceedingly thin and flexible sheet which servesas a means for holding and connecting together the separated relief portions of the work, and for furnishing a back-ground for the same, whereby IV attain various marked advantagesand desirable results as hereinafter more fullyset forth.

In the accompanying drawings,-Figure 1- is a face View ofa sheet of ornamental work understood to have been prepared in accordance With my invention, and Fig. 2 is a section through the same on the line -ac, Fig. 1.

In carrying out my invention I back the relief portion of the work'with some thin foaminous or open mesh fabric, and incorporate vwithin such fabric a portion of the material,

employed for yforming ornamental work, in sufficient -quan tity for filling its meshes or interstices, and tojsuch end, surplus material is removed from the back-ground portionof 'the iiexible sheet.` In this way I provide'the relief with a backing or ground sheet com-f posed of exceedingly thin and flexible'material, which can be'bentwithout injury. This also permits me to prepare sheetsof ornamental work which can be safely transported, Y

and which can be applied to walls and ceilings as readily as ordinary wall paper. A further feature involved in the foregoing is that owing to the extreme thinness of the ground sheet, the latter can when desired, be cut away at points around an ornamental figure in relief,

-and thereupon the remaining portion of the portion.

at isolated points without necessitating the.

use of a ground sheet of suflicient area to coverthe entire wall or ceiling.

In practice I place and spread the material of whichthe ornament is to be-made, while in a fluid or semi-duid condition upon a. mold or matrix, so as to fill the depressions which form the relief A, and leave a thin layer upon the ground portion of the matrix, and preparatory toI so doing,I oil the mold or matrix in order that the work will not stick to it. I then place upon the material thus distributed, a thin sheet B, of some suitable open work mesh fabric such as tarleton, or mosquitonetting or the like, and smooth down the fabric by passing or drawing with suitable pressure a scraper or trowel over the fabric, taking care to move the scraper or trowel diagonally with relation to the lines of thread, and to incline it forwardly, so as to avoid wrinkling or otherwise `disarranging the light and delicate fabric employed. This operation is performed so as to smooth'down the fabric and permit the material upon the ground portion of the matrix to enter and fill the meshes of the same, and at the lsame time toscrapeand thereby remove from the ground or background portion ofthe sheet, substantially all material over and above the quantity em bedded within the meshes of the portion of the fabric which is intended for said ground I also prefer to tamp or further depress the portions of the fabric which directly back the relief so as to form depressions or indentations which can be subsequently filled with material and thereby provide a more secure connection between the relief and the fabric. I then permit the material to set or harden, and as a matter of further improvement I then spread upon the back ofthe fabric a second layer of. the material, slightly thicker than the first, so as to fill such depressions as may have been made by tamping the back of the relief as aforesaid and also completely fill any and all of such portions of the meshes or interstices in the fabric as may be open for such filling. I also level o this second layer with a scraper or trowel and in so doing scrape from the back of the ground portion of the fabric all material except such as is incorporated in the same. While the material placed in the first instance upon the ground portion of the mold or matrix serves to fill the meshes of the fabric and thus provide a thin flexible ground sheet which also serves to connect separate portions of the relief in a design or figure, I find that during the operation of passing the scraper over the fabric so as to force the material Within its meshes and remove all surplus material, the threads of the fabric are apt to be agitated to an extent to prevent secure or perfect union between the fabric and all portions of the material distributed Within its meshes, and that in order to more positively fix the material which has been distributed Within the meshes of the fabric, it is best to further distribute the material by a second application as aforesaid, so as to fill all cracks or interstices which may have been left as a result of the first treatment. After this second xing material has been properly dis` tributed, and all surplus scraped from the back of the fabric, the material thus last applied is also allowed to set or harden, after` which the mold or matrix can be inverted and raised from the Work. The sheet of ornamental Work thus prepared can be used without further treatment, although I prefer sizing or treating it with a solution of oil, turpentine and beeswax by dipping it into the same so as to render the flexible sheet tougher, stronger, and more durable. I may hovvever use oth er suitable sizing or dressing solutions or compositions, such as dextrine, or glue size, l Sheets of ornamental work thus prepared can be readily attached varnish, or the like.

to Walls and ceilings, either flat or curved, and said sheets can be applied either over the entire Wall or ceiling surface, or at separate points thereon as may be desired. These sheets of ornamental Work can also be painted or colored either prior to or after their application to the surface to be ornamented, and any suitable paste can be employed for securing them to Walls, ceilings or the like.

I do not confine myself to any particular material for forming the ornamental portion of the Work, and I may use either plaster of paris, pulp, or any other material or composition suitable for such ornamental Work, observing that Where I employ plaster of paris I prefer mixing in some suitable fiber, for example asbestos ber. The material for the `relief and the material for lling the ground portion of the flexible foraminous or open work sheet may be the same, or may differ, as may be desired, and where I apply `a second treatment as aforesaid, I may use a like `or different material as preferred, it being observed however that the simplest Way is to employ one material throughout. As explanatory therefore of the term moldingmaterial as employed in my claims herein, it is expressly understood that the same comprehends any substance either composite or simple, which is adapted for ornamental Work such as herein referred to, and capable of being molded to form the relief, or molded within thepores, interstices or meshes of the thin foraminous or open mesh sheet, or both, and that the said term molding material is not employed in the sense 'ofmaterial used for making molds or matrices. Said material may for the purposes of its application be in either a plasticor semi-fluid condition, according to its nature and capacity for ready set. Thus for example I may use plaster of paris in a condition Where it is of about the'consistency of cream, it being understood however that the very nature of the work herein described requires that the molding material must at the start have a sumcient degree of fluidity, rst to permit it to readily enter and in effect saturate the fabric, that is to say, enter and fill the meshes or interstices of the same, and secondly, to permit the surplus material to be scraped from `the delicate fabric Wi thout Wrinklin g or otherwise disturbing the latter. It may therefore be properly said, that in accordance With my invention, the molding material which forms the relief and fills the meshes of the fabric, is cast, in contradistinction to other modes of forming ornamental work in which a layer of molding material is formed upon a flexi ble backing sheet and given an ornamental surface by pressure either in a mold or between rollers, neither of which operations are suitable for preparing ornamental Work in accordance with my invention.

What I claim `as my invention is- 1. The process of producing sheets of ornamental Work, consisting in spreading the molding material in a semi-fluid or proximately semi-fluid condition upon a matrix, applying thereon `a backing sheet of open mesh frabric, incorporating the molding material within such sheet, and removing the molding material from the surface of the ground portions of such backingsheet, substantially as described.

2. The process of producing sheets of ornamental Work, consisting in -spreading the molding material in a semi-fluid or proximately semi-duid condition upon a matrix, applying thereon a backing sheet of open mesh fabric, incorporating the molding material Within such sheet, removing the molding material from the surface of the ground portions of the sheet and after the material has set, making a second application of molding material to the, back of the sheet in quantity suiiicient `to fill such openings or interstices as may be present as a result of the setting of the rst application and thereby fix the same,substantially as described.

3. The process of producing ornamental Work, consisting in spreading the molding material upon a matrix, applying thereon a sheet of open mesh material, incorporating the molding material Within the sheet,tamp ing or depressing `the lsheet in the relief portions of the Work, and filling the depressions thus made in the sheet with molding material, substantially as described.

IOO

5. Sheet ornamental Work comprising av 1o thin flexible sheet of open mesh material provided With and constituting a backing for the relief portions of the Work, the groundportions of the sheet being saturated with the molding material and portions of the sheet backing the relief being tamped or depressed t 5 l therein and having the depressions thus formed in the sheet lled with molding material, substantially as described.

' EDWARD CRISPIN. Witnesses:

CHAs'. G. PAGE,

W.` D. MIDDLETON.v 

